during the george w. bush administration, government spending went up a lot. this is government expenditures per capita, per american person. it combines federal, and state and local governments, right? as you can see, it start there's when george w. bush took office in 2001, and it wasn't like there was just some individual spike in spending that happened right after 9/11. it was a steady, huge increase over time. so per capita government spending was roughly 12 grand per person when w. came into office. when he left office, it wasn't 12 grand anymore, it was 16 grand in government spending for every man, woman and child in the country. that is a big, steep increase. for comparison sake, if you look at bill clinton, who was in office for the same amount of time, bill clinton also saw a spending rise, but compared to w., he kept spending under control. it really takes off, as you can see, when it goes to bush. since president obama has been in office, he has been better than both of them. he hasn't just held the reins, like clinton did, he has turned it around